Visiting Santa

Why is it that Santa's are lame? Why do they do it if they're not going to put their hearts into it? I think the real Santa should do a better job screening his helpers.


Rosemary has actually visited Santa twice this year and, well, this is the best picture we got. Fortunately, she doesn't think either of the Santa's were as lame as her mom did. She has also not (yet) questioned how many times she's seen Santa this year and how different he looks every time.

She is absolutely enamored with the rosie-cheeked man; there are no tears or refusals to sit on his lap. The second time we saw him, he rode into town on a fire truck, and when he got out of the truck, Rosemary busted through the crowd to give him a big hug. Sadly, there was too big of a crowd for a decent picture.


Both times she saw Santa and she asked for a pink flash light. The first time, after the visit, they handed out candy canes. I later overheard her telling somebody, "I asked him for a pink flash light, but he just gave me a candy cane." It was a very similar situation the second time, too.

Fortunately, she's not holding a grudge and can hardly wait to find a pink flashlight under the tree. I sure hope Santa brings one or she just might stop believing.

Guess who's learning to knit?

My friend Sally has been telling me about this place in Baxter called Among the Pines. The person who owns it basically gives free knitting lessons to anyone who comes in. Sally arranged it so we could both go in a little early last Friday, and let's just say I am nearly done with my second scarf. I think after Christmas I will have to move on to something more complicated.

A couple years ago my sister-in-law gave me some knitting needles and yarn for Christmas, and I tried knitting but just could not get the hang of it. I knitted and un-knitted more rows than I care to recount. I think the problem is that I was using crappy yarn (my sister-in-law gave me good yarn, but I didn't want to waste it, so I went and bought some practice yarn), and potentially that I was using metal needles.

Sue, from among the pines, highly recommended wooden needles, and I don't even know how to explain it ... there is just something deeply satisfying about manipulating them. I find it hard to put them down and I even brought them to church last Sunday.

Advent Calendar: Day ?

Well, true to my form, I have fallen behind on my advent calendar posting. So far behind, in fact, that I don't think I could possibly recap every day. However, we have definitely been keeping up with it and we've been having a lot of fun with it.

A favorite advent calendar find was the little baby snowman in these nesting dolls. I have been looking far and wide for some inexpensive nesting dolls (often referred to as matryoshka dolls) and inexpensive ones are hard to find. I would still love to find some that are not specifically Christmas dolls, but these suffice. Rosemary (and kids in general) loves to stack and unstack these, line them up, count them, rearrange them, etc. They are really good for learning to sort, learning math skills, etc. Anyhow, we couldn't fit all of them in the advent calendar, so the smallest one went in and the rest were waiting under the Christmas tree.

Last year, somebody (either my mom or my step-mom, I'm so sorry I can't remember who) gave Rosemary a toy matchbox that opens up to snow people dancing, and plays the 12 days of Christmas. This year, Rosemary received it in her advent calendar. It's another favorite.

Her most favorite of all, however, is a tiny toy snow globe that is so small it fit into the pocket. It's plastic and nearly unbreakable (believe me, it's been tested many times) and Rosemary loves it so much, it is almost always in her hands.

I've been so glad that we're doing this. I truly feel like we have stopped to think and talk about Christmas and its meaning more than we ever have before.

Advent Calendar: Day 8

Somehow in the last post I lost track of the days. And since my math skills are sorely lacking, I'm not even going to bother with fixing it. So, yesterday was the 8th day of our advent calendar and Rosemary awoke in the morning to find a Tinkerbell ornament in her calendar.

She ran right over to hang it up on the tree and couldn't wait to hang the rest of the ornaments up. Fortunately, she did a good job practicing patience, because I made her wait until Joel came home from work to do the decorating.

She had so much fun looking at all the different ornaments, and hanging some of them up. I emphasize the word some, because true to the character of a first/only child, she is a perfectionist and grew easily frustrated when the ornament didn't hang up right.

Regardless, it was definitely a fun family event.

I think it's interesting that once we were finished decorating, we remembered a couple of traditions that we had forgotten. Every year since we've been married, we've put strings of popcorn on the tree. I was looking at the tree after it was decorated and couldn't get over why it looked so odd to me, and then I remembered! We also forgot to hang some wooden cranberry strings that we have.

We made up for it by making extra tinsel balls and throwing them on the tree. Do any of you do tinsel balls? What sorts of Christmas tree traditions do you try to keep?

Advent Calendar: Days 3-8

The last few days have been insanely busy, which is precisely why I've been happy to have this advent calendar. I haven't had the time to blog, in fact, we haven't had time to do much of anything. We've done a lot of running back and forth between the cities and our homes, I took an unexpected (but welcome) freelance job over the week/weekend, attended a wedding, etc. Yet, in the middle of all of it, we've had time each day to stop at the advent calendar and take a moment to remember what this season is all about. Although the items in the pockets aren't all about Jesus, there is an anticipation and excitement and it's an outlet to talking about just what that means.

On day 3, Rosemary found a miniature bag of M&Ms. For the sake of economics, we just used leftover Halloween candy.

On day 4, I was sadly out of town while Joel was with Rosemary. We had planned in advance to give her the book The Night Before Christmas. My mom gave her this book for her first Christmas, it's a different version of it ... but the same book. There are really a million different versions of it and most of them are pretty good. When I grew up, it was a tradition for my mom to read us this book on Christmas Eve and I intend to continue this tradition with my family. We gave Rosemary this book so early in the season to help prepare her for a play she'd be seeing later.

On day 5, Joel gave Rosemary a little stuffed animal. Its a frog with a santa hat. See? It's nothing special, but exciting for a 3-year-old. And we are not breaking any banks to do this. The frog is simply a Christmas decoration that we've had for years.

Day 6 presented Rosemary with another book, O Come, All Ye Faithful. This book is truly a classic Christmas book. We found it at the library last year and we all loved it so much that Rosemary gave it to Joel as a Christmas present. I highly recommend it.

Day 7 was a special day. My mom decided months ago that she wanted to take her two oldest grandchildren (Rosemary and my nephew, Grayson) to see Twas the Night Before Christmas at the Stages Theatre Company. And, well, the rest of us thought it was such a good idea that we crashed the party. On this day, when Rosemary went to her advent calendar, she learned she would be going to see a special play. It really was a lot of fun for everyone. I didn't get any pictures, but my mom should be sending me some soon. Rosemary was so enthralled with the singers and dancers and informed me that when she grows up, she is going to sing on that very stage. Sounds like fun to me!

Today, day 8, we knew we were going to pick out our Christmas tree, so Rosemary found a drawing of a Christmas tree in the calendar today. The tree is in the living room thawing out as we speak. I'll post pictures soon.
Day 7: Christmas tree

Advent Calendar: Day 2

Today's Advent surprise was a little less exciting, but just as happily received. A bag of M&Ms. And, in the interest of being economical, the M&Ms came from Halloween candy that has been long forgotten. Neither Rosemary or I have much of a sweet tooth, so we live in a house where candy can be long forgotten.

Anyway, there's not much purpose or reason to a bag of M&Ms, but I don't believe it all has to have a deep meaning. It's simply something that causes us to stop in the day, remember this season and what it's truly about, and then continue along with our day.

Our family is reading an Advent devotional together and today's was about justice and generosity. It talked about Jesus feeding so many people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. We don't have to have much, we simply need to be generous with our giving and Jesus will take care of the rest. If the most generous we are able to be is one can of soup to a soup kitchen, Jesus can perform a miracle with that.

Today, I was reminded how absolutely, incredibly blessed I am. We have definitely been hit by this economy and sometimes, I tell you, it seems like it's unfairly difficult to us. We've gotten rid of many of our possessions, moved and moved again, found ourselves in need of less and less ... and it feels so good. The less I have, the less I realize I need. So in a sense, the less I have, the more I feel like I have. We've gotten a rid of a few things we very well may need in the future; and the question I've asked when it's time to get rid of these things is: God provided this for us when we needed it, don't we have faith He'll provide again?

Advent Calendar: Day 1

I have been wanting to get Rosemary a toy nativity scene since the day she was born. I wanted an heirloom-type wooden one, but they are all so dang expensive.

This year I decided a playmobil nativity set would do the trick. It's plastic and all, but really those playmobil toys are pretty heirloom quality, if you ask me.

So. Rosemary was up, out of bed, and into that Advent calendar before I could say a word. I had just received the nativity scene in the mail and thought it would be a great way to start out our Advent celebration. I couldn't fit the box into the calendar, so I just put a piece of paper inside that read, "Away in a manger ..."

The only unfortunate thing is that I didn't open the box before I gave it to her. If I had done so, I would have thought to just give her pieces at a time. It was a 59-piece set, and how fun would it have been to give her Mary, Joseph, and a camel first? Oh well, there's always next year.

Rosemary absolutely loved the toys and we spent most of the rest of the day playing with them. It was a nice break from playing Disney Princesses, let me tell ya ...

Anticipation

Joel and I have determined to make the season of Advent something a little slower and more thoughtful. The last couple of years we have lit Advent candles and read an Advent devotional, which has been good and meaningful, but easy to forget and overlook.

This year I determined to make an Advent calender. Just a little something fun and extra to help us slow down and think about the true meaning behind Christmas.

Rosemary has been watching the development of this calendar eagerly. She knows it will hang on her door, she knows it will be a Christmas decoration. This kid loves Christmas. She's excited about presents, yes, but it's more about the experiences of Christmas for her. The lights, the decorations, the celebrations, visiting Santa, and so on. And as an adult who has found Christmas to be a less and less exciting holiday, I am enjoying the opportunity to see it through her eyes.

Advent began last Sunday, and so I'm not exactly sure why most traditional Advent calendars begin on the first day of September. I decided to go with the traditional calendar so I would not need to make a new one each year.

We'd love for you to join us as we go through the next 25 days of Advent. I'll do my best to post each day what surprises Rosemary finds in the pockets of her new Advent calendar.